NATIONAL NEWS - Added to the inconvenience of Stage 6 load-shedding, residents are complaining of unfair distribution of load shedding, where some areas get shed more than others.
Issues of unfair and excessive load-shedding hours and the negative impact the blackouts have on businesses and households have dominated discussions since the implementation of Stage 6 last week.
The power utility implemented Stage 6 after 11 generators, amounting to 5 084MW of capacity, suffered breakdowns, further reducing available capacity and necessitating the increase in the stages of load shedding.
Apart from load shedding, municipalities like the eThekwini Metro also experienced power outages, which have been going on for more than a month due to faults and ailing infrastructure.
‘Unfair’ and excessive load shedding
A northern KwaZulu-Natal municipality, uMhlathuze, experienced longer load-shedding periods in the eSikhaleni (eSikhawini) areas, which the City said was due to Eskom unlawfully using electrical infrastructure that belonged to it.
The municipality said it had recently learned that Eskom was in charge of shedding certain areas within the electricity-licensed areas of the municipality.
“In terms of the National Electricity Regulator conditions, under which the City operates electricity, it is the City of uMhlathuze that should be managing its network, including deciding on its load shedding schedules,” said uMhlathuze Municipality spokesperson Bongani Gina.
Gina said they were engaging with the head of Eskom’s electrical and energy department to immediately correct the anomaly.
Responding to the allegations made by uMhlathuze, Eskom said it remained committed to load- shedding using the prescripts of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) standard for discharging load-shedding in a fair and equitable manner.
Eskom said the eSikhaleni (eSikhawini) area was supplied jointly by Eskom and the City of uMhlathuze, which had been the case for more than 30 years.
When load shedding was introduced, it was agreed that Eskom would load shed both the municipality’s and Eskom’s customers.
The power utility said this was done in order to have equitable treatment in both the Eskom and municipal areas of supply.
Eskom’s Joyce Zingoni said:
A further justification was that the municipality did not have a functional remote operating system to open and close the breakers. This is necessary when load shedding is required outside of office hours. Accordingly, an agreement was reached by both parties that Eskom would load shed the eSikhaleni [eSikhawini] area remotely.
Meanwhile, North Coast residents have accused the KwaDukuza Municipality and mayor Lindi Nhaca of interfering with the load-shedding schedule after they suffered lengthy blackouts over the weekend.
The municipality dismissed these allegations, adding that Eskom determined loads and times (stages) according to the energy available from its power stations.
Load shedding is a national crisis and has become albatrosses in various sections of society as it affects livelihoods and businesses across all municipalities.
Demand for urgent solutions
Opposition parties believe not enough is being done to get South Africa out of this crisis.
ActionSA KZN chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said the solution was that government needed to allow municipalities to source power from independent producers.
Load shedding is affecting all businesses. If you are losing six hours in a day, as an employer you are losing out [on profits]. Some companies will opt to close down during Stage 6, due to the many risks to the machinery and [impact on] production costs.
Mncwango questioned if the government had the appetite to find a solution to the energy crisis.
IFP spokesperson in eThekwini, Mdu Nkosi, said the blackouts were only making matters worse for people who were already suffering due to an ailing economy.
Once businesses start experiencing longer hours without electricity it would lead to them cutting down on staff, and that would mean more and more people will be unemployed.
Nkosi said no one was safe, as the outages affected all businesses, big and small.
This will lead to retrenchment, factory owners will lose out on production time and our people will suffer. We are still recovering from the lockdown and companies are still trying to make up for a lost time.
Meanwhile, the DA has announced a major protest march to the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on January 25 against what they believe is an “ANC-engineered” electricity crisis. We invite all South Africans to join us to voice their anger at the ANC’s destruction of our country’s energy infrastructure and economy, and to demand urgent solutions to this escalating crisis,” said DA leader John Steenhuisen.
